How do I add PHP code/file to HTML(.html) files?

Question

I can\'t use PHP in my HTML pages. For example, index.html. I\'ve tried using both:

and

Answer 1

If you only have php code in one html file but have multiple other files that only contain html code, you can add the following to your .htaccess file so it will only serve that particular file as php.

AddType application/x-httpd-php .html 
//you may need to use x-httpd-php5 if you are using php 5 or higher

This will make the PHP executable ONLY on the "yourpage.html" file and not on all of your html pages which will prevent slowdown on your entire server.

As to why someone might want to serve php via an html file, I use the IMPORTHTML function in google spreadsheets to import JSON data from an external url that must be parsed with php to clean it up and build an html table. So far I haven't found any way to import a .php file into google spreadsheets so it must be saved as an .html file for the function to work. Being able to serve php via an .html file is necessary for that particular use.